Just simply seeing "linksys" "zyxel" and "enterprise" in the same sentence without the word "isn't" in there, made me shake my head. Theres a separate line for Linksys' enterprise offerings, its called Cisco.Reply

Scratch that, I forgot that Cisco sold it to Belkin. Fair enough, but still...Linksys hasn't exactly been hot in the enterprise space. Even their main page has the headline "Linksys Home Networking"Reply

Enterprise will talk back to a controller, that usually has a nice GUI that allows you to configure each individual AP for whatever you want, put in a map overlay, get a lot of statistics and reports, etc, etc.

As well, the AP themselves will support more users before bogging down. Obviously, you are still bandwidth limited but you are not processor limited in actually handling those devices. A consumer device might only handle 6-10 Wi-Fi connections before it runs like crap, regardless of the bandwidth going through the device. Enterprise can handle much more.

Plus you also get better quality parts (lol at that in my experience), outdoor versions, versions which you can add directional antennas too via RF cabling, etc, etc.

I wouldn't mind one of these for my house though, or even two of them and adding 1 on each floor. Reply

Expanding a little on what's said above.A common problem in consumer base stations is that they limit the number of DHCP clients to 8 or so. You can sometimes work around this if you can a stable, controlled environment like your house (eg by giving some to all devices hardwired IP addresses), but it's a real problem in an office environment --- especially since there is no failure indication, all you see is that sometimes you can connect and sometimes you cannot.

Not ALL consumer base stations are so throttled. Apple's are not, and I would guess (but not promise) the same is true for the other high end base stations of comparable price.

Don't assume that these would be nice around your house just to be cool. You will, for example, need to buy a switch which can provide PoE --- no using your cheap home switch. You'll also have to have a dedicated computer as controller, or go through the hassle of setting up cloud control (which is one more point of failure you have to worry about and monitor).Reply